Doctor Who, Remnants of an Unknown Future
by XtomJames
Summary: The Doctor and his companion arrive in a future not quite right
1. Chapter 1

Doctor Who, Remnants of an Unknown Future

(A Steam Punk Doctor Who Story by Xtom James)

**Prologue**:

"Come here boy!" The slave master screeched his uplifted hand bore the whip of his profession. A monstrosity of a machine towered to their left, its many sprockets and levers ticked off timing the output of a strange green substance that poured from a nozzle behind his master's head into a funnel that drained to some unseen place.

"Yes sir." The young slave fumbled forward on scraped and bruised knees to his master's side.

"Drink this," he said, handing the boy a glass of the green substance.

"Must I?" The boy looked from the glass to his master's face, a great smile spread across the man's face.

"Yes boy, drink it or I'll whip you like I did two nights ago."

The boy sighed and took the glass, gulping in out of nervous fear. The liquid glowed slightly as he drank. The boy seized, gasping for air. His hands flew to his throat as he coughed violent upheavals. Foam formed around his mouth and the pungent smell of oranges filled the room.

"Ah yes, it works just as I planned. Perfect…oh so perfect." The slave master stepped over the boy as he headed to a shadowed out cove on the other side of the room. Looking down into through the alcove a vast cavern shimmered with bright lights and the sound of hammers and other tools rang up faintly. Hundreds of children toiled away gathering small green rocks, piling them into mining carts.

"Yes, oh yes, soon it will be mine and I will hold the Queen ransom."

Behind him the boy collapsed fully to the ground as a red circle glowed out of his back and a small orange tree bloomed where the boy once groveled. Orange blossoms unraveled releasing green speckled pollen into the air.

**Part I, the Incident of Future Events**

The whir of the TARDIS echoed between the sheer red brick walls of late nineteenth century town houses, barely squeezing between the two walls. The Doctor pulled open the door and stuck his nose out.

_Snooouuufffff_ "Is that, oh yes it is, cake!" He stepped out; the long brown coat covered his usual pinstripe suit. "New York, eighteen fifty-five I believe."

"That's what you said last time…" A tall ginger boy exited the TARDIS, his letter jacket reminiscent to a nineteen fifties high school football all star coat. The front was emblemized with a red cardinal and the back carried the number sixteen. Freckles flecked across his nose under the overhead street lamp. His muscular upper body flexed lightly under the button up shirt.

"…turned out that it was seventeen sixty and we were almost killed for being witches. Who'd have thought that there were real witches creating havoc? Of course you didn't have an issue at all did you with that possibility Doctor."

"Come on Kiel, its not like we were really burned all that badly, and our trip to the New Earth hospital fixed us up right. Look there is cake, and I feel like a piece."

The Doctor headed out on to the street as Kiel closed the door behind him and followed.

The two of them finally found the origin of the smell of cake, a bakery on the end of the street, across from a grove of young orange saplings. Its proprietor stood waving his hands of water before cutting into a double chocolate chip cake that he had just recently placed frosting on.

"Hello, I'm the Doctor and this is Kiel."

"Eh, tourists?" said the baker, "Don' git many of yous."

"We were wondering about the cake, if we could buy a slice?" Kiel asked, pointing to the slice the baker was just putting onto a plate.

"I suppos' so, young mena goin to play around I see." He pointed to the grove orange trees.

"Oh?" The Doctor followed his finger to find a group of men chasing after some children.

"I don' see how dem trees graw, hasn't been sun all year."

"No sun?" Kiel puzzled took the plate from the baker.

"No sun'an that's for the whole kingdom."

"Kingdom, this is New York isn't it?"

"Yessum…god live the queen"

The Doctor made his way to one of the trees and plucked a leaf. "Kiel, save me a piece."

Kiel sat at one of the small tables as the Doctor pulled from his pocket a few blank gold coins. "This should cover it."

"Gold sir…where'd you git this?"

"Its just gold, what's so strange about that?"

"Her majesty's treasure sirs, they've order'd all precus metals be confiscated for the war."

"War?" Kiel said, turning his head to the Doctor.

"Yes sirs, the Westies are still tryin' to win, their lil' revolution. The army wiped them out oh in eighteen-fidy. But ol'grups keep a popin up. The Nation of Texas and Confederation of Plain States tolerate 'em jus to firer us up."

"Nation of Texas?" Kiel scoffed, chocolate dribbling down his chin.

"And where did those orange trees come from then, there's no light, no sun, no warmth or electricity. They can't be natural."

"Oh natural as dey come, yessah, they spring up like dandelions all of dem."

"Thanks for the cake. Kiel we should be going."

"Right, thanks mister."

"It's Ol'Tom-tom to yall. Come back, ya'hear, any time."

****

"Doctor, what's going on? Where's New York, what's that old codger going on about 'the Nation of Texas' and all that?"

"We've some how slipped into a different timeline. Or maybe we created one with that little trip to Colony period Africa. Hmm…" The Doctor went quiet as he scratched his chin.

"I thought you could sense the flow of time, isn't that what you said? That's what you said when you took me, let me live instead of dying in that car on the tracks in Topeka."

"Yes but time is complex Kiel. It's not like something one can just predict. This might not even be our doing. We'll go back to the TARDIS and analyze the material of the leaf I took. Then we'll find out how we got here or what is going on."


	2. Chapter 2

**Part II, What is Steam Century Anyways**

"Chibiiiii! Where are you Chibi?" Kiel called out on the third level of the TARDIS.

"Merrrrroew…I'm here." Chibi let loose on her grip and fell claws down on to Kiel.

"God Chibi, you're going to get someone killed doing stuff like that." He patted the head of the half cat half human that had been picked up as a stray by the Doctor on New (New New New New…) Earth. Her black ears and tail twitched for a moment at Kiel's condescendence before she stood fully erect.

"I'm not just a cat you know; you can't treat me like one." She pushed the small glasses up her furry nose. "I'll have you know I've been trained in the ancient cat ninjutsu of Seras Prime."

"Yeah yeah, where's Nick?"

"Last I smelled him, somewhere in the fifty-third floor. He might be floating around again."

"We've landed."

"Really, where? Old New York, I heard there was a play performed called Cats…"

"No, it's uh, well uh, I'm not sure. It doesn't look like the New York I remember and the Doc is flabbergasted by some leaf he took from an orange tree."

A holographic image promptly popped up in one of the subsections of the outer wall of the TARDIS, the Doctor was standing there fiddling with a control before he turned to it.

"Attention all Decks. We've crossed into an alternate reality, I think." He whacked the console for a moment, "Is this thing on?" The familiar buzz of the sonic screwdriver whirred before he started again. "Look the TARDIS can sustain herself without much issue, it seems the rift that runs from Cardiff on our Earth runs right through here in this timeline. But it seems there is something a miss. Electric and gasoline motors don't seem to exist here. It's as though everything is based on Leonardo Da Vinci's steam mechanics. There are no radio waves, no television, no electronics that I read like they are in our time line. All of you need to come up here immediately. There is something else that is bothersome."

The hologram blurred out as Kiel and Chibi stared amused by the Doctor's confusion.

"Well at least we know one thing," said Chibi "we're not in…what's that saying again, Columbia anymore?"

"Kansas…not in Kansas anymore…" Kiel shook his head and started for the main stairwell followed closely by Chibi.

***

Nick awoke to start, the blurred afterimage of a hologram still burned in the zero gravity level.

"What…" he mumbled through the oxygen mask. Kicking with his left foot he sent himself twirling towards the wall with the afterimage. "God how long was I out…."

***

The main control room twittered and beeped as the Doctor ran from console to control. A long ticker ribbon streamed from the center console piling on the floor.

"Doc…yo Doc, what's the…" Kiel was cut off as the Doctor ran past him to pull another lever.

"You…" He grabbed Kiel and dragged him over to one console, "hold this down and don't let it come up. Use all of your strength if you have to."

He leapt over another pile of paper and hoisted Chibi with one go, he set her down on a chair that was bolted to the floor. "Tell me when that number reaches, oh somewhere around sixteen thousand. Where's Nick, have either of you seen…no no oh no no no…" He ran across the floor picked up a rubber mallet and hit the top of another console.

"Doctor what are we doing?"

"We're analyzing that leaf."

"What leaf?"

"The one I plucked from one of those orange trees."

"Grrrr…fifteen five hundred." Chibi purred.

"Uh, Doctor…help" Kiel was being pulled up by the lever ever slowly. Before the Doctor could get to him Nick came rushing in, tripped on a pile of paper and came crashing down on Kiel pulling the lever down all the way again.

"Good man…I told you sleeping in zero g is great."

A few seconds later two alarm bells sounded and the entire process came to a halt.

"So let's see what it is." The Doctor strode over to a small container and opened it to find a human eyeball where the leaf had once been.

"An eyeball?" His eyebrows furrowed and his lips drew to a thin line. "Those orange trees, they were once human."

***

Chibi was the first out of the TARDIS, slinking towards the wall of one of the buildings. Long shadows laid across the street in the early evening sunlight. The Doctor, Kiel, and Nick found their way to her, locking the TARDIS as they left. Over head was an airship heading north towards what looked to be several sky scrapers.

"So a taxi would be good." The Doctor prodded for a moment at the air.

"Why not take the TARDIS?"

"Simply because if we do it will lose power, right now it's drawing all of its energies from the rift." The Doctor stood out in the street and looked in either direction.

"Not even a buggy. This seems to be a good time to pull out Bertha."

"Bertha?" Kiel looked to Nick and Chibi. "Who's Bertha?"

"What is Bertha, you mean. Bertha is my faithful Ford Model A."

The Doctor ran back to the TARDIS and disappeared into the Blue Box. A few minutes later the TARDIS began to grow and on its side appeared a large door. With a small grumble the door popped open and out came a yellow nineteen twenties Ford Model A. Its yellow paint had not one scratch and the leather seating was pristine as the day it came off the assembly line. The Doctor was seated behind the steering wheel, leather goggles over his eyes and a long multicolored scarf was wrapped around his neck.

"I had wondered where I had left these. Come on what are you waiting for, get in."

Nick shook his head, "I think I'll guard the TARDIS."

"Ugh, always the cranky one." Chibi jumped into the back seat her tail flipping back and forth. Kiel took the passenger seat.

"Don't touch anything, the Rift is unstable." The Doctor said has he pushed a few buttons on the dashboard. "I made a few modifications; she doesn't need gas anymore that's for sure." With a flip of a switch and change in gear the tires rotated down to reveal anti-gravity units. "Hang on, and don't claw the leather."

The Model A lifted off and began to fly straight for the air ship.

***

"Captain, Captain Brennan, there is a…well a." A low ranking officer huffed after running from the foredeck of the HMA Badger.

"There's a what?" Brennan said, looking over her shoulder at the officer. She stood at the helm of the HMA Badger, which had just arrived in New York to report on the recent events in the Eau Claire city boundaries.

"A…a, well I don't know what it is, it looks like a carriage, but its flying."

"What do you mean flying? Carriages do not fly." The Captain stood down from the helm handing it off to her first officer.

"Take me to this flying carriage." The Captain ordered the officer who obligingly began to quick march back to the foredeck.

***

"There she is the air ship, HMA Badger?" The Doctor squinted through his goggles for a moment. "What is up with you humans and naming ships after animals? You know Spartacus, he named his ship the Minotaur, of course it was destroyed and he was enslaved before he ever sailed it."

***

"There Captain," the officer pointed to the yellow model A that the Doctor was driving.

"Man the cannons, frontal turn to the left. Enemy spotted!" The Captain yelled as a hail of repeats of the order sounded along the corridor. "Fire when they're in range."

***

"What the…" Kiel pointed to the row of cannons now facing head on as the Badger made its turn to the left. "…Doctor!"

"I'm on it…" The Doctor pulled the steering wheel hard to the left and instead of driving forward came to a sliding stop.

"All right, Chibi you take the wheel I need to get into the trunk." The Doctor climbed over the front seat as Chibi climbed over Kiel to get to the front. In a matter of moments the first volley of cannons were hurtling for them. What seemed an eternity to Kiel and Chibi lasted only a mere handful of seconds, and in that same time the Doctor activated a fully powered anti-gravity shield which encased the entire car. The cannon balls bounced right off flinging to either side of the car.

Another volley came at them, and then a third before the HMA Badger ceased fire.

"Ok so now what, they're apparently not friendly." Kiel pointed to the lot of cannons.

"Oh come on, they just saw a flying carriage what did you think was going to happen." Chibi prodded at Kiel with her fore-claw.

The model A floated gingerly over to the Badger coming along side the observatory where the officer and Captain Brennan stood.

"Oi!" The Doctor cried out at them, "Can we at least talk this over first?"


End file.
